This invention pertains to a hand held cartridge case reloading press.
The new press is portable and does not need to be fastened to a stable object, such as a bench, to use it. Thus a hunter or target shooter can take his or her reloading press any place it is convenient to carry a rifle. There has been a long felt need for a light weight, low complexity and relatively inexpensive portable cartridge reloading tool. Attempts to develop one go back at least as far as the year of 1871 when U.S. Pat. No. 118,849 issued. One of the more recently developed hand held reloading tools is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,049,044. The tool in this patent comprises a tubular member and a ram that is reciprocable in the member. A compound lever system drives the ram. The tubular member has a side opening for inserting a cartridge on which a reloading operation is to be performed. Specially shaped adapters and dies are screwed on to the end of the ram for performing the successive reloading operations on each cartridge case. The user is compelled to hold the tubular member with one hand and operate the single lever with the other hand which means that it is possible to squeeze the fingers between the lever and the tubular member.
One of the disadvantages of prior art portable reloading tools is that they require specialized dies and cannot use readily available dies which are standard for use in bench mounted reloading presses. Another disadvantage is that they use many different parts for the various reloading operations such as primer removal and insertion, cartridge case shaping, and bullet insertion. Insofar as applicant is aware, no one has produced a hand held cartridge reloading press that is suitable for full length sizing of a cartridge and is yet economical to produce and easy to use.